UOB YOLO Card Review 2017: Is it the Best Credit Card for Millennials?

Find out if the UOB YOLO Card is the right card for you!

Introduced in March 2016, the UOB YOLO Card is one of the latest additions to UOB’s repertoire of now 18 credit cards. Coined from the phrase “You Only Live Once”, UOB looks to please the millennial crowd; of which it sees 20% of its card-spending come from. It must have done something right; it won the “Credit Card Initiative of the Year” in 2017, awarded by the Asian Banking Finance, an industry magazine that reports on Asia’s dynamic finance industry.

It certainly lives up to its name; providing an attractive array of rebates and privileges, such as exclusive VIP passes to the recent Beerfest Asia 2017. “Eat. Drink. Play. Repeat.” is the slogan for this card. If this sums up how you spend your weekend, then this is the card for you.

Now let’s explore some of the finer, intricate details of this card:

Rebates

8% weekend dining and entertainment rebate (local & overseas)
– Spend from 0000 hours on Saturday to 2359 hours on Sunday (dependent on the local time of residing country) to be eligible for the rebate
– 8% rebate is on a promotional basis until 31st December 2017. After which, it will be revised to 6%

So, is UOB YOLO the right card for you?

If you like a card that gives you privileges, this card does not fall short. The UOB YOLO card has partnered with over 99 brands across various categories from dining and entertainment, to online shopping and travel. These privileges include percentage discounts, 1-for-1 deals, and even priority queue access. The brands are lavishly displayed on the UOB YOLO page here so you always know where to get the best deals the card has to offer.

If you have decided that you’re up for a 8% rebate on your dining, entertainment, local and overseas spend, FREE Grab rides every weekend and more, congrats! Apply now to be on your way to living it up!

But if you’ll like to see how this card fares against similar cards from other banks, keep reading for more insights.

UOB YOLO Card vs OCBC FRANK Card

Let’s compare this card with another card targeted at millennials. You would be familiar with OCBC’s FRANK card which has many similar characteristics to the UOB YOLO card, such as its capped rebates of S$60. While the 8% rebate from UOB might seem attractive right now, remember that this is during its promotional period, and after 31 December 2017, it will recline back down to 6%.

This will then put it almost on par with the OCBC FRANK Card which caps at 5%. The weekend start period is deemed by UOB from Saturday at 0000 hours; whereas, for OCBC, it begins from Friday, at 0000 hours. You basically get a full day’s worth of spending rebate more on OCBC.

Now let’s see what it takes to fully qualify for each of the card’s full rebates. UOB says that to receive your full 8% and 3% rebates, you need to spend a minimum of S$600 in your statement month, regardless of online or offline spending, with the rebate capped at S$60. OCBC on the other hand, says that to receive your full 6% and 5% rebates capped at S$60, you need to spend a minimum of S$400 in your statement month. However, this S$400 constitutes only to offline transactions; meaning to say that your card must be physically present during the transaction for it to be counted.

For a card targeted at millennials starting out in their career, their annual fee is surprisingly lacklustre in attractiveness, sporting the same S$192.60 annual fee with the 1-year waiver as most credit cards do. This puts the OCBC FRANK card at an advantage with its S$80 annual fee and 2-year waiver.

UOB YOLO Card vs OCBC 365 Card

With that in mind, let’s pit it against another card of a similar fee, namely the OCBC 365 Credit Card, which pitches cash-back all year-round.

Now let’s explore some of the finer, intricate details of the OCBC 365 Credit Card:

23% fuel savings at Caltex.
– 5% cash-back on all other petrol stations.

3% rebate from supermarkets islandwide

3% rebate from recurring telco bills (Singtel, Starhub, M1)

0.3% rebate for all other types of spending.

To qualify for full rebates, minimum spend of S$600 per statement month is needed. If not, customers will only earn 0.3% rebate on all spend.

Total rebate capped at $80 per month.

Minimum Annual Income

S$30,000 for Singaporeans and $45,000 for foreigners.

Annual Card Fee

S$192.60, with a first 2-year free waiver.

Supplementary Cards

The first supplementary card at S$96.30, also with a first 2-year free waiver.

It’s a pretty clear-cut choice for the money you’re forking out, the OCBC 365 gives you more options to get your money back. Not to mention the perks which come along with it like its S$200,000 worth of complimentary travel insurance just by purchasing return plane tickets through the card, as well as access to the 24/7 Visa Signature Concierge service.

Perhaps the UOB YOLO Card might not be the most ideal when compared to other cards; but you still wish to bank with UOB. What other cards could you explore?

UOB YOLO Card vs UOB One Card

The UOB One Card has been dubbed “Singapore’s most generous rebate card”, and for good reason. You stand to earn up to 5% cash rebate on your expenditure, with an additional 10% rebate on mobile payment transactions, and up to 21.7% off at Shell petrol stations or 24% off at SPC petrol stations. This card sports the same annual fee of S$192.60, with a first-year fee waiver.

Although in foresight, you would have to plan in advance to reap the full benefits of this card. The fine-print of the card’s terms and conditions states that to receive the 5% rebate, customers need to spend a minimum of $2,000 a month for 3 consecutive months, and spending S$500 or S$1,000 for the same duration will earn you a 3.33% cash rebate instead.

It’s a rather complicated card to work with if you’re the kind of person who prefers things kept simple for you. For those who like to indulge themselves in cash rebates and have no qualms about doing a little planning in their monthly expenditure, then this card would work out better for you.

Let’s take a breather here and excuse ourselves from the dense foliage of words. We now have 4 cards up against one another in a battle royale. Numbers thrown left, right, and center; a piling mess. There are great millennial-driven cards that pique our interest with their attractive offerings, and there are also have well-rounded cards that cater to almost every type of spending a family would encounter.

Now, what better way to summarise all this financial mumbo-jumbo into a simple, easy to read table:

Whether you’re a millennial starting out in life, still figuring out which brand of shampoo would be value for money… or a diligent, briefcase-toting adult who can afford an Uber ride to work for that extra few minutes of shut eye, financial literacy is a skill that should beckon all. Knowing how to tabulate your income/expenditure sheet and tracking it is a beneficial habit to cultivate to avoid unnecessary financial mishaps.

If you plan on owning a credit card (or more), it is highly recommended that you start tracking your expenses, if you have not already done so. You have nothing to lose anyway, but have everything to gain.

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Christopher is an aspiring entrepreneur who comes from a background in the Arts. As a personal development enthusiast, he constantly puts himself in other people's shoes that sometimes he forgets where he left his own. He favours the gentlemen culture and fluffy cats. Follow him on Instagram
@hairofclover

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